Field of the Invention
1. The present invention relates to a device for supplying deodorized, sterilized air that contains alkaline chlorine dioxide gas for drying, deodorizing and sterilizing the human epidermis and clothing, bedding, etc., to clean them and to prevent the occurrence of decubitus ulcers.
2. Related Arts
When it is physically difficult for people, such as bedridden elderly persons or patients with advanced diseases, to raise themselves without help and as a result they are confined to their beds for extended periods of time, blood circulation is impeded at those portions of their bodies that press against their beds. Then, when those areas become hot and are kept moist by perspiration, or when wounds or insect bites in those areas become infected, so-called decubitus ulcers occur.
Furthermore, when a patient is confined to bed for a long time, the patient's clothing, such as underwear, and bed sheets and other bedding become soiled, bad odors are generated, and the load placed on care providers and nursing personnel is increased. In addition, the possibility that care providers and nursing personnel may contract a viral infection, particularly MRSA, becomes a serious problem.
Therefore, as is shown, for example, in FIG. 16, devices have been produced and are on the market that provide for air, which is supplied by an air generator 1, to be discharged from an air mattress 2 having a waveform surface.
According to the claims made for this device, as the surface of the air mattress 2 has a waveform shape, the area of a human body that comes into contact with the mattress is diminished, and this prevents the circulation of blood from being interrupted. Further, as air is discharged from the waveform surface, overheating of the body and the moisture that is produced by perspiration can be prevented.
Proposed in addition are members, such as a mattress, that contact the body of a patient. For one such decubitus ulcer prevention device (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 5-84121), a plurality of holes are formed in a mattress, and slidably located in these holes are pressure receiving members, which have recesses, to provide support for a human body. As another patient care item (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 5-154178), a mattress has a surface that is made of silk.
In the above conventional decubitus ulcer prevention devices, however, the heating of a human body and the moisture that is caused by perspiration, and the interruption of blood circulation at a body portion that presses against a bed can not be satisfactorily prevented. Furthermore, the deodorization of the underwear and the bedclothes of patients and the sterilization that is required to destroy germs that propagate in them, and the protection of care providers and nursing personnel from viral infections, etc., can not be carried out.